The Prince of Light
by Tangled Desires
Summary: As darkness threatens to overrun his kingdom, Prince Harry and his two dearest friends, a young knight named Ronald Weasley and a servant girl named Hermione, must overcome many obstacles and threats to save all of Hogwarts. Rated T for violence and slight sexuality. Rated M out-takes will be posted. H/Hr, Medieval AU.
1. Prologue

Welcome, one and all, to my first FanFiction here on the site. I've been writing FanFics for a while, as well as a good deal of my own original work, and I've decided it's time to share some of my ideas. This one actually popped up whilst I was sitting in a movie theater. But it _has_ been a while since I've last written a FanFiction, or rather since I've last written characters that aren't my own. That being said, we're all aware that J.K. Rowling is in complete ownership of all canon characters. Whether or not original ones will be in this story, I highly doubt it, but if they do, their concepts will then belong to me. This story, also, has been rated T for darker themes (not too dark, of course), violence, the occasional cursing, and slight sexuality. (Rated M out-takes will be posted later on for those wishing to read the "citrus" that will occur later in the storyline.) Boring disclaimer stuff out of the way, why not give you the prologue to the story?

Please note that my chapters will be a LOT longer than this. It's merely an introduction of sorts. Hope you enjoy!

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**A Scroll in the Library of Gryffindor**

Everything began with the first disappearances.

For as long as I can remember, there has always been peace in the Land of Hogwarts, among the four kingdoms. There was always harmony between those who possessed the gift of magic and those who were born without it, and everyone prospered. Happiness and contentment spread throughout the land, and all was well.

Until Lord Voldemort came into our midst.

Those first few disappearances were coincidental, practically, beginning in the kingdom of Slytherin, where there was always a seed of mistrust between the citizens of magical descent and those of non-magic origin. But when the disappearances and resulting murders spread to the other three kingdoms, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin, suspicion rose and so did the fear of the people.

It became known that these awful occurrences were the work of a group known as the Death Eaters, led by a man who called himself Lord Voldemort, defender of blood purity and champion of magic.

Spearheaded by the royal Potter family in Gryffindor, a countering group was formed known as the Order of the Phoenix. The Potters and their allies waged all-out war on the Death Eaters in defense of the helpless non-magical folk (called Muggles) and their magical offspring.

But it all came to a tragic end on the night of All Hallow's Eve, seventeen years ago.

Nobody quite knows how it happened, but somehow that night, Lord Voldemort succeeded in taking the royal family's palace, overthrowing the kingdom of Gryffindor and murdering the late King James and Queen Lily in their own chambers.

However, this is where the story takes a different turn.

Lord Voldemort, after having killed the king and queen, ventured into the room of the young Prince Harry, who was two at the time, and cast the same killing spell that killed his parents just minutes before. But something miraculous happened. The spell backfired, and the prince was bestowed with a scar as the only evidence that he defeated the Dark Lord. For Voldemort fell where he stood, the body vanishing, leaving only the dark cloak on his back and a broken kingdom.

Seventeen years have passed, but still I worry. Harry has grown into a strong young prince, soon to take the throne, and the kingdom of Gryffindor has been rightfully repaired, as has the whole of the land of Hogwarts. But there are whisperings in the night. Rumors that disappearances have started once again, that the name of the Death Eaters has once again begun to stir.

I pray, for the sake of Harry, his dearest friends, and all of Hogwarts, that these rumors are not true.

- Albus Dumbledore, Scribe of the Gryffindor Library and Adviser to the King

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Like I said, chapters will be much longer. The first chapter will be coming soon!

- Harp


	2. One: Breath of Life

Told you chapters would be longer. ;) Welcome to the first official chapter of the story - told you I'd have it uploaded quickly. Second chapter might take more time, but I don't want to bore you with an author's note. Special thanks to , Raph Weasley, and HarryHermioneEdwardBella for reviewing just the prologue! I honestly didn't respect any response from just 400 measly words. But thank you for reading! Enjoy! (And please pardon any spelling or grammatical errors. Same disclaimer still applies to the story.)

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**Chapter One: Breath of Life**

_The library was not the most common place to find the eleven-year old Prince of Gryffindor, but today was a rather special occasion._

_Young Prince Harry was hiding from his caretakers, not wanting to attend his daily lessons with Professor McGonagall, and the clever boy had decided to go to the place they would least expect to find him. Crouched among the shelves of books with his very best friend Ronald Weasley, the son of a popular lord, Harry couldn't help but marvel at his own genius._

_Until, of course, a cascade of books fell over their heads, and the two boys yelped in both surprise and pain._

_A tiny girl whipped around from behind the shelf, her patched and simple clothes a suggestion that she was a servant girl. Her brown hair was bushy beyond belief, as if it had never seen a comb, and her brown eyes were wide in terror as her hands clamped over her mouth. She was a tiny thing, about their age, or so Harry noted when he finally emerged from the mountain of books._

_Upon seeing him, the girl gave a squeak of horror._

"_Oh, Highness, I'm so sorry, I really am. I didn't hurt you did I? I was only trying to reach a book, but it was too high for me to get, so I tried to wish it down, and-"_

"_Blimey! Trying to kill us, are you?" bumbled Ron as he too finally managed to emerge. "I ought to have you reported and flogged, stupid."_

_The girl's eyes widened in fear as she began to shake. "Oh, please, sir, I didn't mean to, it was just an accident-"_

"_We're not going to report you," Harry said, feeling a bit of pity for the poor rambling servant girl. "What's your name?"_

_Still clearly terrified, the girl murmured, "H-Hermione, your Highness."_

"_You can call me Harry."_

_That smile was only the beginning of their friendship._

Harry knew he could always find Hermione in the library even when she wasn't working there.

Nineteen years old, the prince was quite the sight to behold for the wandering eyes of servant girls as he passed them in the corridors. Messy raven hair hung over sharp emerald green eyes that were truly the only reminder that he was an Evans as well as a Potter. His tall and leanly built frame loomed over most in the castle, and his reasonably tanned skin came from playing Quidditch outdoors and dueling with the other knights of the palace for sport.

However, today he was on a mission.

With All Hallow's Eve so close, there was a ball fast approaching the palace of Gryffindor and all its inhabitants, and lately planning for it had taken over Harry's time, as much as it pained him to admit. Planning for events like this had to be his least favorite part of his responsibilities as prince, and as soon as he turned twenty one and had the crown placed upon his head, Harry knew that all of the responsibilities for these kind of events truly would fall on his shoulders. Thankfully, however, that burden still rested with Remus Lupin, current ruler of Gryffindor and a substitute of sorts until Harry could become king.

And today, Harry needed some help with organizing the menus (which, as far as Remus had explained, would involve a good deal of food tasting and sounded like a decent job). Seeing as Ron, now Sir Ronald Weasley, was unavailable for the task, that left only one person that Harry would want to do this with.

Hermione was curled up in her usual corner, although to Harry's surprise, she was fast asleep with a book open on her lap. And sitting on the windowsill, watching him with malicious golden eyes, was that blasted palace cat that seemed to follow Hermione around everywhere. His orange fur was puffed out, and his tail twitched in irritation at the sight of Harry. The stupid thing hissed when Harry started to approach his sleeping friend, as if the cat was warning him not to wake her.

As usual, Harry just glared at it before gently putting a hand on Hermione's shoulder.

Her brown eyes flew open and she started, causing Harry to grin in both amusement and to mask the guilt, but as soon as she saw that it was the prince who'd woken her, she sighed and relaxed.

The palace cat hissed once more before leaping off the windowsill and racing away.

"Harry, you really ought to be more careful, sneaking up on me like that," Hermione said wearily, though they'd been through this at least a dozen times before. "You practically scared the wits out of me."

Recognizing the routine, Harry grinned at her. "Well, perhaps a servant girl like yourself shouldn't be taking naps in the palace library."

In the earlier years of their friendship, a statement like that would have normally been regarded as an insult, but that sentiment no longer applied to them. Both of them knew that, by now, Hermione was so much more to Harry than just a simple serving girl, and the remark hardly ever had any effect on either of them anymore. So she just smiled and rolled her eyes in return, and pushed herself to her feet before returning the book to the shelf it had come from.

"Duly noted, _Highness_," Hermione replied, eyeing him playfully. "What do you need?"

"I have to go arrange menus for the ball. Help me?"

Hermione's eyebrows shot up as she brushed imaginary dirt off her simple peasant's dress. "Right now? I really shouldn't be doing things like food tasting with the prince, Harry. Or helping you plan a ball. That's for nobles. Why can't Ron help you?"

"Ron's out on a scouting patrol at the base of the Forbidden Mountains. They left this morning."

"Oh." Hermione frowned, as though this information was new to her. "Why didn't he tell me?"

Harry shrugged. "I didn't know about it either until this morning. Seems like not a lot of people were supposed to know about it. I talked to Remus and he told me what was going on."

"Tell me."

"I don't want to worry you."

Her frown deepened, and he watched as she crossed her arms tightly across her chest. She was eyeing him in suspicion now. "Tell me, Harry. What's going on?"

"Remus told me… they were going to investigate possible Death Eater activity."

Hermione's eyes widened in horror as she clamped her hands to her mouth. "No," she breathed. "Harry, why did you let Ron go alone?"

"Remus would never let me go investigate that sort of thing, and you know that," Harry grumbled bitterly. "And Ron isn't _alone_. Kingsley's with him. They'll be back before tomorrow, I'm sure. Don't get worried over something that probably isn't true."

"But Harry, _Death Eaters._"

"I'm aware, 'Mione."

"Don't you know what this means?"

"I _said_ I'm aware, Hermione."

"The kingdom… Hogwarts… all of the disappearances could be starting up again, _you_ could be in danger…"

"_Hermione._" Harry was scowling now. He knew immediately, the second he'd said Death Eaters, he never should have brought it up in the first place. Hermione, out of his two closest friends, was always the one to worry first. Ron had been all smiles and joking when he'd left this morning, telling Harry not to worry about a thing, and that everything was probably just a big fuss the village at the base of the Mountains was making. Harry should have known that Hermione's first instinct would have been to panic. "Everything's fine. The village there is probably making a big fuss over nothing." He repeated Ron's words from this morning.

She looked unsure, her chocolate brown eyes full of anxiety now. "What _exactly_ is happening in the village?"

From the look in her eyes, Harry knew that she wouldn't let him be until he told her the truth. Feeling slightly uncomfortable, he mumbled, "A group of muggleborns were kidnapped. And apparently it was the third kidnapping this month."

The gasp that came from Hermione was exactly what he'd expected. Suddenly she flew at him, and Harry was caught completely off guard when her arms wrapped around him and she gave him a hug that nearly knocked him flat. Not entirely sure of what to do, he patted her awkwardly on the back and waited for her to let go.

There were not many who thought good of Harry and Hermione's friendship, and most openly disapproved of it around the palace. Ever since the fateful day they'd met eight years ago, there were many who thought it strange that a prince and a nobleman's son would befriend a simple servant girl, and in the blooming days of their companionship, there were those that tried to prevent it. Mostly because of moments like this, where protocol was blatantly ignored, and a prince and a servant girl stood in an embrace as though they were equals.

Harry, of course, had never minded, and was often the one who had to tell Hermione to disregard the rumors. Hermione rarely lost control of herself like this, which made it all the more unnerving.

"You _must_ be careful from now on," Hermione gushed, still clinging to him. "You know that Death Eater activity could possibly mean…"

"'Mione, Voldemort isn't back. Don't even start thinking it." Just the name of that murderer sent chills down Harry's spine. "There are these kind of kidnappings all the time. You know that."

"But, Harry, this one _feels_ different."

"You're not even out there to make the distinction. Look, everything will be fine. Ron will be back before you know it, and you'll find out that all your worrying will have been for nothing," Harry reassured her, smiling almost in amusement. Hermione always had the need to fret over every little thing. "Now will you come help me arrange the menus?"

And they were back to where they'd started.

Hermione pulled away from him, eyeing him in slight disdain, as she said, "I really shouldn't."

"But I want you to."

"Harry, that's no place for me. I told you that planning out things for extravagant balls like this are for nobles. I've got no part in it," Hermione protested.

"Please, 'Mione?"

She eyed him for one more moment before letting out an exasperated sigh. "Alright. I'll help you," she said, but there was a warning laced in with her tone. "But I can't have it taking all afternoon - I've got chores to attend to in the kitchen before supper."

"Do you ever get tired of it?"

Hermione looked caught off-guard by the sudden inquiry. "Tired of what?"

"Being a servant? Having all these chores?"

It was a conversation that they had more often than Hermione was really comfortable with, it seemed. She looked down, as though to avoid meeting his gaze. "You know I wouldn't have it any other way," she said quietly.

"I could have you freed."

Hermione sighed. "And… where, exactly, do we need to go to arrange menus?"

Harry grinned, glad that she finally assented to help him. He really didn't understand her sometimes, why she seemingly had no desire to be free, to live in the outside world. It wasn't that the servants at the palace weren't treated well, and Harry often made sure of that for Hermione's sake, but there was something about the idea that no matter how close of a friend he considered Hermione to be… she was still considered by most to be underneath him. He had offered many times over the chance for her and her parents to be free. And yet, every time she opted to say no.

These were the thoughts that plagued him as he and Hermione went down to the kitchens. He didn't even notice all of the disapproving glares that were sent their way anymore as they walked together, side by side, prince and servant girl.

"Halt."

Sir Ronald Weasley, knight and son of Lord Arthur Weasley, reined his horse in as commanded by the leader of their search party, Sir Kingsley Shacklebolt.

They had been riding for hours, pausing only briefly a little over an hour ago to water their horses and eat a quick on-the-road meal of bread and cheese from the palace kitchens. Already Ron's belly was rumbling with the hints of hunger, but he did his best to ignore them.

"We're getting close," came the deep voice of Kingsley again. The elder knight was dressed in full mail, the flaming red insignia of Gryffindor on his shield. In the bleak, dark forests through which they were riding, it was a welcome sight. "Stay together, and keep a lookout for any movement. Something doesn't feel right."

The words were far from comforting, and Ron struggled to keep anxiety from taking a hold of his stomach. His horse nickered nervously, as though it sensed its rider's tense disposition. Gulping, he leaned down and patted the beast's neck, mumbling useless reassurances as he caught up to the other members of the scouting brigade.

Looking around, Ron could see that Kingsley was right. Something _didn't_ feel right about the woods surrounding them. It was too quiet, too bleak. There was no hint of wildlife - not even a rodent racing across the path, or a bird twittering above them. The only sound that seemed to echo through the wooded space was the clopping of the horses' hooves on the dirt, and the heavy breathing of some of the older members of the company. No. Something didn't feel right at all.

There was a clearing up ahead, an end to the forest. Whispers spread through the group. Nobody knew what they were going to find in this quiet, gray place.

As Ron and the others made their way out from the forest, the view that greeted them was no less bleak, and far more disturbing than that of the quiet trees.

The village, which Ron had been told was a thriving mountain village, was completely and utterly deserted. There were no running and laughing children, no livestock, not even an echo coming from the thatched roof houses. The Forbidden Mountains, looming ahead, showed no signs that the village had fled into the pass. There were hardly any hints of life here. Like the forest, there weren't even any wild animals that seemed to be hiding in the shadows.

The group cautiously made their way through the throes of the outer village, and the horses began to toss their heads and snort, as though they could sense that something was wrong. Ron gulped, suddenly wishing that he hadn't left his bed this morning.

"Kingsley, what does this mean?" another member of the group asked quietly.

Ron looked to the senior knight, and was troubled to see that even Kingsley looked heavily unsettled. "I'm not sure," Kingsley said hesitantly, drawing his horse around as though to see something else. "Wands out, everyone. I don't want anything catching us by surprise."

Everyone did as commanded, slipping wands out from small holsters attached to their armor. Each knight was also armed with a sword, though oftentimes those were only used for tourneys and competitions these days, as Ron noted. But Kingsley was not done giving out orders.

"Blackstone, Moore, scout the surrounding area. See if there's any trace of the village people having left. Fremont, Weasley, stay with me. We're going to take a closer look around here. Nobody dismount. If there are any enemies around, I don't want them to catch us off-guard. I need something to tell King Remus when we return, something more than the village was completely deserted. Whoever gave us the information about the kidnapping either had an outdated report, or we were lured out here. Either way, I want to find out. Report back here in twenty minutes. If there's trouble, send out a warning flare with your wand. Understood?"

The glum and tense nods around the group were enough for Kingsley, who turned his mount once more and led Ron and Damien Fremont, another young knight, further into the village. The other two, Blackstone and Moore, moved away from them and back towards the forest.

"What do you think happened here, Kingsley?" Damien questioned as they moved as quietly as possible among the seemingly dead homes. "A raid?"

"I'm not sure," Kingsley said with a frown. "We would have seen traces of them leaving had it been a normal raid. Perhaps Blackstone and Moore will find something, but I doubt it. Whatever this was, I don't think it was natural."

_Natural_. Ron shuddered at the idea that something other than natural had happened to these people, and at the idea that whatever it was that was _un_natural was waiting for them somewhere in this village. His grip tightened on his wand as he and his mount stuck close to the other two riders, his heart pounding.

"Don't be so tense, Weasley," Kingsley reprimanded him. "Just be ready for anything."

"Right, because those two things are so different," Ron grumbled to himself, though he was fairly sure that Kingsley heard when he saw the corner of the older man's mouth fold up.

It was then that the three knights were met with a rather disturbing sight.

They had rounded the corner into a small open space that looked to be something like a town square. Standing in the dead center of it was a woman, dressed in tattered clothes and filth and grime covering her from head to toe. She was staring blankly at them, as if she had been waiting for their arrival. Ron instinctively raised his wand to defend himself.

Kingsley grabbed his arm before he could even utter a spell. "Don't. She looks like a civilian."

Ron didn't lower his wand. Instead, he kept it close as he and the other two urged their steeds to move closer. The woman didn't move, and when the horses began to toss their heads in protest, Ron felt ice form at the pit of his stomach. Whatever this was, it wasn't normal, and the horses could sense it.

"Kingsley, I don't think we should get any closer," Damien said, echoing Ron's thoughts. "The horses might throw us, and I'm not entirely sure we want to be left without horses around this… this…" He, too, seemed to struggle with coming up for a name for the creature in front of them.

Kingsley grunted, and gently reined his horse in to a halt. Ron and Damien did the same, coming up on either side of the elder knight.

"What happened here?" he called out to the woman, who was continuing to stare at them with a glassy gaze.

"A warning." The voice was a hiss, unlike any voice the three knights had ever heard. Ron's mount whinnied in terror at the sound of it, tossing its head back and nearly smacking Ron in the face.

"Who are you? A warning for whom?"

"He is coming," the hiss continued. "He rises from the ashes, and his followers gather. This was only the beginning. You will see. He seeks the blood of the one who destroyed him."

Ron scowled, the words causing his stomach to clench up in terror. He had a vague idea as to what the woman could be referring to, but the idea was impossible. Terrible, horrifying, but impossible. And, yet, something about the woman's words and the state of this village brought chills to his heart, almost as though their surroundings were a reassurance that her words were true. And if they _were_ true…

"_Who_?" Kingsley growled. His tone suggested that he was either getting impatient, or that the woman's words were just as troubling to him as they were to Ron. Ron guessed it was the latter, from the tightened expression on the older man's face.

"He who is the champion of magic and purity. He who is most powerful."

"Impossible," Ron heard Damien breath on the other side of Kingsley.

Kingsley was about to respond when the woman let out an unworldly scream. The horses whinnied in terror. Kingsley's jumped backwards, tossing its head, as Damien's bucked and nearly threw its rider. Ron's reared, and Ron clung to the saddle for dear life. Over the shoulder of his mount, he could see that the screaming woman had burst into flames, and suddenly she looked… well… _dead_. Her eyes had rolled into the back of her head, and her skin was… melting? A horrid stench filled his nostrils, and in horror Ron hid his face in his horse's mane, trying not to panic or fall off the horse as it shrieked and flung its hooves in the air.

And just like that, it was over.

The horses were still horribly spooked, as their riders desperately tried to calm them down, though they felt no better. Moments later, the two others, Blackstone and Moor, came galloping in on their own horses.

"We heard a scream, and saw smoke-" Moore breathed.

Blackstone cut him off. "Came to make sure you were alright, sir."

Kingsley held up a hand to the pair of them. "We're in no danger here that I can see. But there was certainly something… disturbing… that must be reported to King Remus at once. There was an Inferius here… a charmed or cursed one, at that. Even if what the creature said wasn't true, someone's been practicing Dark Magic in the area."

"An Inferius?" Blackstone sounded incredulous. "But the likes of those haven't been seen since-"

"Since He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was in power. I'm aware," Kingsley replied darkly. "Did you find anything?"

"Not a trace of any of the people, sir," Moore answered. "No footprints, or any signs of them. It's as if they all disappeared into thin air. Nothing even looks remotely disturbed."

Ron frowned. This scouting mission was getting stranger and more frightening by the minute, and he didn't like it one bit. The nervous snort his mount let out was enough to tell him that the horse didn't like it either.

"Er… sir?" Damien's voice came from nearby, and all of the knights turned to see that the young man had wandered off a ways on his horse. He was peering inside one of the homes, with a very perturbed expression on his face. "I think you'd better come see this. I think I know where the people are."

Clearing his throat and attempting to look indifferent, Kingsley drove his horse over to where the young knight was, and the others followed. When Damien moved back so that he could look inside, Kingsley did so and sucked in a breath.

"Sweet Merlin," he murmured.

When Ron got his chance to look, he almost lost his lunch.

Bodies littered all over the inside of the house. It looked as though a family had lived here, in the small one-room thatched house. Two children were still in bed, though their eyes were wide open and their faces disfigured into expressions of terror. A woman was stretched out on the ground, the dirt beneath her dark as though her blood had been spilt all over it. A man was down by the door, his head nearly completely detached from his body, a splotch of dark dirt beneath him very much like the one of the woman's. Ron's stomach tightened as he forced himself to look away.

He urged his mount to move away from the house, and Ron tried to erase the grisly image from his mind. He heard Kingsley briefly explaining what the Inferius had told them to Blackstone and Moore, who both looked incredibly distressed by the news. Damien had dismounted his horse, and was retching a few yards away. Hesitantly, Ron approached the others.

"We ride back to the palace immediately," Kingsley was saying. "I was going to stop and make camp at Moonpine Lake, but we can't afford any delay. There was Dark Magic performed here. An entire village wiped out, by the looks of it, and an Inferius to top that all off. Search for any survivors. Fremont, you and Weasley take a look near the back of the village, closest to the mountains. Blackstone, Moore, and I will finished looking around here. Report back when you've finished."

It took Damien and Ron nearly a half-hour to come to the conclusion that there were indeed no survivors. Every house they peered into, the reek of death met their nostrils and the horses would panic. It was a wonder neither of them had been thrown thus far, though Damien looked rather green. Ron prided himself on not being the one to show how sick he felt, though some of the more gruesome sights made his stomach roll. They would tap on windows or doors, but nobody ever responded. There was no movement anywhere, until finally they gave up and trotted back to the others.

"No luck?" Kingsley asked of them.

Both young knights shook their heads.

Kingsley scowled. "We couldn't seem to find any either. This must be reported to King Remus at once, and the other kingdoms have to be alerted. Whether this really was Death Eater activity or a powerful sorcerer with Dark Magic, it could be a very dangerous situation."

With this, he gently kicked his horse into a gallop, and the others followed. Ron, with a gulp, took one last look at the demolished village, before taking off after the other knights. Whatever had happened here, he couldn't help but shake the feeling that this was only the beginning of something terrible.

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Hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Yes, I decided to make Harry and the trio a bit older than they would be in the books. Nineteen (if I did my math right). If you have any questions or comments, please do review! I would love to hear back from you what you think. And for those of you who might worry, "Damien" isn't a major OC. He's just... there. For right now. Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Thank you so much for reading!

- Harp


	3. Two: A Warning to the People

Sorry this this chapter isn't as long as the last one, and that it took me a while to get this up. I had a wedding to attend this past weekend, and as you can imagine I didn't have much time to write. My plan for this FanFiction is to hopefully get an update up at least once a week. But thank you so much to all who reviewed! I also plan to start replying to reviews, 'cause I've realized it's kind of rude to not express my gratitude personally to each and every one of you for your thoughts. I hope you enjoy the next chapter!

(The main mistake I noted last chapter was that while on my document manager and in the Word document where this story is kept, there were distinct separations between points of view and timeframes, it didn't show up last chapter. I tried a new way of separation, and I apologize for any confusion! Hopefully this time it works.)

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**Chapter Two: A Warning to the People**

"_Fast little bugger, isn't she?"_

_A fourteen-year old Harry grinned over at Ron as the pair of them raced after a laughing Hermione, playing a rather childish game of chase on the palace grounds. It was lazy summer days such as this that brought out the inner child in everyone around the castle, it seemed. While many of the young boys were training and dueling in the training yard, Harry and Ron found it much more fun to spend their time around Hermione, who seemed to have a knack of unusual knowledge about the palace grounds that fueled their passion for exploration._

_The afternoon was swiftly drawing to a close as the sun began to hover closer to the horizon. Supper would probably be soon, Prince Harry knew, and he was beginning to find that he was not wanting this wonderful day to end._

_As his breaths began turning into exhausted panting, the prince cried out, "Alright! Alright, we give up. You win!"_

_Ron just looked thankful that he'd called it to a halt, and he practically came to an immediate stop before hunching over and clasping his hands to his knees, laughing breathlessly. "Look at us," he wheezed, "A squire and a prince outrun by a tiny servant girl. She ought to be a knight herself, the way she moves."_

_For some reason, the thought didn't sit well with Harry, and it made his insides squirm. Though perhaps that was just his being out of breath. He realized he didn't like the thought of Hermione training alongside them, because that meant she would be training to fight. And the thought of their best friend out on a battlefield, surrounded by enemies, didn't sit well with him. But he grinned in amusement when Hermione came wandering back to them, her curly brown hair tousled by the wind, and her eyes alight in mirth as she observed the prince and the knight-to-be._

_None of them noticed when a few of the other serving maids sent the trio nasty, disapproving looks while passing them on the path._

H&Hr&R&H&Hr&R

It was well after dinner when word reached Hermione's ears that the scouting party had returned from the Forbidden Mountains. As soon as she was able, she excused herself from her parents' small servant's cottage on the palace's southern green and practically ran to the stables where she was sure the party was being received.

For reasons unbeknownst to her, her stomach clenched in terror for what she would find when she reached them. Though perhaps that was her stomach reminding her to never again sample so many delicacies whilst taste-testing menu items for a ball.

Her lithe, long legs carried her effortlessly across the palace grounds, though she attracted many disapproving glares from the serving staff as they all retired to their humble homes for the evening.

Upon nearing the stables, her run slowed to a brisk jog, and soon enough the sound of urgent voices reached her ears. Surprisingly, she noted as she approached, Harry's was not among them. She could make out only bits and pieces, and as she got closer, she could pick out certain people amongst the fray of sounds.

She could hear King Remus, his normally soothing voice in a frantic tone that made Hermione frown in worry. Kingsley Shacklebolt was among them as well, as she could hear his deep voice urgent as he relayed news to the others. News that couldn't be good if it had everyone in such a state. She could also hear Sir Sirius Black, a close companion of the King and one of Harry's father-like caretakers, with a tone that was similar to the king's.

"Impossible, the Dark Arts were banished years ago." That was the King, and it was the first full sentence that Hermione picked up on.

Hermione immediately caught on that this wasn't exactly a conversation she was meant to hear, and so she did one of the things that she was best at. She became invisible. Crawling into one of the bushes that surrounded the walls of the stable, she managed to position herself close enough to the entrance to hear the conversation.

"- if you need confirmation, I have two other men who witnessed the entire event with me. Ronald Weasley and Damien Fremont both saw it."

Her interest was piqued upon hearing Ron's name. What, exactly, had he witnessed that Kingsley was describing? Her heart thudded in worry for her friend.

"But one of the Inferi?" Sirius' voice sounded incredulous, and Hermione's eyes widened at the mention of an Inferius. "That kind of magic was only done-"

"Are you suggesting, Kingsley, that _Lord Voldemort_ is returning to Hogwarts?"

Hermione couldn't stop herself from letting out a little gasp, and she clamped her hand over her mouth. The very idea that that monster had returned to their lands made her quiver in fright, but her fear was mostly for Harry. How would he take that kind of news? What did this mean for him, for the kingdom? And how on earth was it possible for Voldemort to return? Harry had vanquished him as a child, when the killing curse meant for him had rebounded and hit the Dark Lord. Surely what Kingsley was suggesting was impossible.

Kingsley sounded almost impatient in his response. "I don't know _what_ I'm suggesting right now," he said. "I'm giving you my report, and I sent my men off to their chambers. Goodness knows they've been through enough today. Regardless of what this means, exactly, I think a warning needs to be sent out to the three other kingdoms. No later than the next Gathering Meeting. But I think the sooner the better."

The King sighed. "You're right, of course. I just wish I knew exactly what this so-called warning that creature gave you meant. There's only one person it could have been referring to, and I don't know what to do with that kind of information."

"The best we can do is be on our guard, and suggest that the other kingdoms do the same."

"We ought to consult Dumbledore on this," Sirius then suggested, and Hermione nodded to herself in agreement. "If anyone could tell us what this all means, he could. I think we ought to talk to him first thing in the morning."

"I'll speak with him," the King said. "See what he makes of this. I'll call a council meeting soon for everyone involved. We'll deal with this intelligently, not just throw some haphazard panic message across the other kingdoms that Dark Magic has returned to Hogwarts. Whatever this is, we have to see to it accordingly."

There seemed to be a mumbling of acquiescence, and suddenly the sounds of footsteps treading the path not five feet from Hermione could be heard, as the nobles made their way back to the main parts of the palace. Only until their footsteps had faded away for a good minute or two did she actually come out from her hiding place.

And found Sir Sirius Black standing over her, arms folded across his chest as he looked down at her with a rather amused sort of expression.

"Eavesdropping, eh?"

Hermione blanched and stumbled to her feet, brushing dirt from her dress and trying to avoid his gaze. "I'm sorry, sir, I was just…"

"Oh, come now, Hermione."

The casual use of her name caused the girl to look up in surprise, and she saw that Sirius' eyes were twinkling in amusement.

"I've known you for eight years, watched you play with my godson and his best friend, be there for Harry when he needed it, and you expect me to punish you for listening in on a little conversation?" he said.

Hermione looked down, fiddling with her dress. "If you don't mind my saying, sir, that conversation didn't sound too little."

"Right you are. You always were a clever little thing. Wish Harry would take a leave out of your book every once in a while," the older man mused. Hermione flushed, knowing that it was a compliment, and was about to sputter a response when he continued. "But you're right. It wasn't just a little chat we were having about border patrols."

"Am I… am I allowed to ask what exactly it was?"

Sirius rolled his eyes and gestured that Hermione should walk with him. Blinking in slight surprise at his silent invitation, she took it, and together the pair of them began to walk the path that would eventually lead them to the main part of the palace.

"Hermione, you can ask whatever you want. Not only are you one of Harry's closest friends, you know just as well as I do that we try not to keep the servants in the dark. What do you want to know?"

"What was Kingsley talking about, sir? I heard something about an Inferius…"

The frown that came to the knight's face seemed troubled, and Hermione was almost scared to hear what he had to say. "Well, you heard right. There was some… rather disturbing Dark Magic performed in that village where we sent them. The entire place was deserted, except for one Inferius… who apparently warned them that Lord Voldemort is returning to Hogwarts," he said, almost carefully.

"I heard Lord Voldemort mentioned as well. Do you really think-"

Sirius cut her inquiry off. "I'd really love to tell you that it's not true, that it's impossible for Voldemort to return. But it's been seventeen years, and the fact of the matter is we don't _know_ what happened that night when that curse rebounded. There was never a body, which only leads to questions, questions that I thought we'd never have to answer."

"But we'll have to answer them now," Hermione observed.

"You catch on rather quickly, Hermione."

"What does this mean for Harry?" Her voice was full of concern, and she fiddled with her hands.

There was a pause before he answered her, and Sirius sounded just as concerned as she was. "I don't know. Kingsley… he mentioned that there was a part of the warning, and he's fairly sure that the Inferius was referring directly to Harry when it said this…"

"What?"

"That Voldemort wants to kill him. Something like that, or so the Inferius said. The warning was exactly '_he seeks the blood of the one who destroyed him_', and considering the only person the Inferius could have been talking about…"

"But that's horrible!" Hermione gasped, her heart pounding in terror for the prince. "Isn't something going to be done about it? Harry could be in danger! How do we know he's not already?"

"That's exactly what we're worried about. We'll be keeping a closer eye on Harry, that's for sure, at least for the time being. Remus is going to have guards posted outside his door tonight, and I'll have someone from my squadron with a bird form to keep watch by his window. Whether or not the thread is legitimate, we can't say for sure, but it'll certainly keep us on our toes."

Hermione couldn't help but feel marginally better about the situation knowing that Harry was going to be guarded closely. Sirius' Animagi squadron helping to keep watch was actually an ingenious idea, and she was glad that Sirius had thought of it.

"You'd best head back to your quarters," Sirius said after the brief pause, and Hermione looked at him, startled. He smiled at her kindly. "There's no need to worry your pretty little head over this, when there's nothing else that can be done. Just keep a closer eye on Harry from now on, and that's all I can ask of you. Go get some rest."

Knowing a dismissal when she heard one, as polite as it had been, Hermione dipped her head. "Of course, sir. Good night."

She didn't notice Sirius watching her thoughtfully as she walked away.

H&Hr&R&H&Hr&R

The next morning was a flurry of movement in the palace, and Harry still wasn't quite sure if he understood everything that was going on.

He'd been woken up in his chambers this morning by an urgent Ron, who'd informed him that King Remus had requested his presence in a council meeting. And at the council meeting, he was not only told that the scouting mission had turned into a Dark Magic scare, but also that Lord Voldemort was apparently about to return, and was going to come after him. He'd been assigned additional guards and had been told that for the time being he was restricted to the palace grounds.

And now he was on his way with Remus and Sirius to consult with the old scribe Dumbledore, who had taken to staying up in the palace archives these days and was apparently expecting their presence.

Harry had only been to the archives twice in his life. Once was with his old tutor as a child, the esteemed Minerva McGonagall, who had been giving him a tour of the parts of the palace that he'd never visited. The second time had been with Hermione and Ron, when they three of them had been up to mischief and were hiding from the palace chefs (from whom they'd stolen a good deal of treacle tart for the young prince).

Now, as he entered it for the third time several years later, he couldn't help but realize the grandeur of all the scrolls tucked away in the shelves, the smell of old parchment, and the incredibly tall shelves that towered to the ceiling far above their heads. Perhaps it was just Hermione's love for things like this that had him so awestruck, but whatever the case, as they neared the back of the archives where Albus Dumbledore was waiting for them, he was incredibly stricken by all of the knowledge that had to be concealed here.

Albus Dumbledore looked like an old man, though he seemed to move with the nimbleness of a teenager. The three of them found him moving about in the shelves furthest back, seemingly looking for a particular scroll. When King Remus quietly cleared his throat, Dumbledore turned to smile at them.

"You'll have to forgive me for a moment, sire," he said softly in a voice that sounded gruff with age. "I'm seeking out a scroll I think will hold some interest for you. But please, do take a seat."

Remus gestured for Harry to sit first in one of the old leather chairs that surrounded an oaken table that looked like Dumbledore's work station. Hesitantly, the prince took his seat, and Remus sat down in the chair next to him. Sirius opted to not sit, instead placing his hands on the back of Harry's chair and standing behind it almost like a guard dog. Harry wasn't sure if he appreciated it or not.

"Ah, I do believe I've found it," the old scribe murmured as he pulled a particularly dusty scroll out from a shelf. Blowing on it, he brought it forth to the table and spread it out for the King, prince, and knight to read as he sat down across from them.

"A scroll on Dark Magic? I thought they were destroyed," Remus said, sounding disapproving as his eyes roamed over the parchment and the words it contained. "Was this one missed?"

"I admit it was by my own request that this particular scroll was not burned along with the others. I felt as though it would have particular importance sometime in the future, and as it would turn out, I was correct," Dumbledore replied. He folded his hands together and set them on the table, observing the three as they read. "I imagine this could answer many questions that you had for me this morning."

"What's that at the bottom?" Harry suddenly asked, pointing. "It looks like a list."

"Quite right, Prince Harry," Dumbledore said. "It's a list of the most ghastly sort. After many years of research, I created a list of items that could potentially be used to bring Voldemort back. I feared the worst after his sudden disappearance, and sought out methods that the Death Eaters could use for his return."

Sirius spotted something on the list and reached over Harry's shoulder to point at it. "Look at one of the ingredients for one of the rituals."

_Blood of the destroyer._

"My blood," Harry blurted out.

"_That's_ why the Inferius said that Voldemort seeks Harry's blood. We assumed it was for revenge, but…" Sirius said.

Dumbledore nodded. "It would seem we have pinpointed the method by which Voldemort wishes to return. However, it would be physically impossible for him to get to Harry himself, and so my only conclusion is that the Death Eaters have decided to mobilize, and their activity seems to be originating from somewhere within the Forbidden Mountains."

Remus and Sirius exchanged looks, deeply troubled. "We thought we captured all the Death Eaters shortly after the war," Remus said, all of a sudden weary. "It seems as though we missed a few."

"On the contrary, that may not be true," Dumbledore murmured. "Blood supremacy is an ideal that, unfortunately, has been extremely appealing to many wizards for a long time. It's very possible that this is an almost entirely new group, holding fast to the horrid ways of a group destroyed seventeen years ago."

"But that's so stupid," Harry protested. He was thinking of Hermione, a muggleborn, who was one of the most talented young witches he knew. His mother, too, had been a muggleborn. "Everyone knows that muggleborns can perform just as well as a pureblood."

Dumbledore's wizened blue eyes turned to the prince, and he smiled sadly. "But alas, my prince, while facts may point towards the idea that your opinion is the correct one, even hatred and fear can twist the minds of the most intelligent wizards. Our notions of magic, you must understand, are very different from those who despise the non-magical people of the kingdoms. The Death Eaters and their supporters had one intention: to wipe out all people with a trace of Muggle blood. They believe that the ways of magic are dying, and in order to preserve it, they think that it's necessary to eternally separate magic from non-magic."

"Then shouldn't we be worried about protecting the Muggles and the muggleborns? If the Death Eaters are back, I'm not the only one they'll be after," the prince said.

"You are so very much like your father, young sire," Dumbledore remarked pensively, leaning back in his chair and observing the young prince with respect. "Always concerned for the welfare of your subjects before yourself. You'll make an excellent king, when the time comes."

"We'll send out knights to the surrounding villages to warn the Muggles and muggleborns," Remus told his charge, patting Harry on the shoulder approvingly. "But Dumbledore, what do you think we should do about the Death Eaters? And what should we tell the other kingdoms?"

"Tell them the truth," came the immediate response. "Send out a message to Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, and tell them that the Death Eaters have returned to Hogwarts and are aiming to bring back their master. As for seeking out the Death Eaters, I think you already know what you must do."

Remus paused at this. "I don't want another all-out war, Dumbledore. And I can't wage it against an enemy that I know hardly anything about."

"War was not going to be my suggestion."

"We'll send out another scouting party," Sirius supplied. "Have Kingsley assemble a group of knights and go back to the Forbidden Mountains. If the Death Eaters are out there, let's find out how many there are, where they're hiding. We might need to have a war if we can root them out. Perhaps we can ask for the other kingdoms to send knights of their own. Make it an effort on everyone's part."

Dumbledore smiled his approval, and so the idea was set.

* * *

Did you all like it? I hope so! I'm always worried about writing Dumbledore, to be honest, because I've seen him written so well. But I'm not sure if I pull off his quirky wisdom quite right. Please tell me what you think - and I hope to have a new chapter done up by the end of this next week!

- Harp


	4. Three: United We Stand

So the "within a week" thing didn't really work out this time. I had a brief camping trip to go on, and as a fair warning right now, it might take two weeks for this next update. I'll be out of town for a week next week with no real time to write (nor will I really be of any mind to). But I'm sorry for the wait and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

**Chapter Three: United We Stand**

"_Really, you don't know how to dance?"_

"_Honestly, Harry, get _down_ from there before you hurt yourself."_

_Prince Harry, a sixteen-year old carefree soul, was currently lounging up in an apple tree, from which Hermione had been assigned to pick apples for Harry's approaching birthday, and the chefs had been asked to cook a marvelous apple pie - one of the many grand desserts that would be served at his birthday ball. She was eyeing him with disapproval as she continued to browse the lower hanging branches for apples suitable to use for the pie._

"_I'll come down if you tell me the truth," Harry teased her. "Do you know how to dance or not?"_

_Hermione made a face at him. "Don't you have someone else to go bother? What about Ron, where is he?"_

"_You're not answering my question."_

"_I don't even understand why you're asking it in the first place," came the sharp retort. "It's a stupid question that doesn't deserve an answer."_

_The grin he sent down at her was almost infectious, and she had to fight smiling back at him. "Come on, humor me, 'Mione."_

_Hermione huffed, and angrily yanked an apple from the tree. Avoiding looking up at the prince, she gave in. "Fine. No, I don't know how to dance. I've never had to learn, considering as servant girls don't exactly need to know how to twirl around in pretty dresses."_

"_Have you ever wanted to learn?"_

H&Hr&R&H&Hr&R

Much to Harry's chagrin, planning for the All Hallow's Eve ball was only delayed by half of a day.

By nightfall, he was back to helping Remus and Sirius pick color schemes and music selections, and feeling ready to cast an Unforgiveable on himself. The only difference between a few days ago and now were the guards that constantly followed his every move, and the constant companionship of an animal of some kind from Sirius's Animagi squadron.

Right now he had a dark tabby currently curled up near his feet. The only hints that the animal wasn't asleep were the perked ears and the twitching tail.

But having a number of guards like this posed its own difficulties other than virtually having no privacy around the palace.

He hadn't seen Hermione all day, and the guards weren't letting him wander the grounds in search for her, and she hadn't sought him out. Though he wasn't even entirely sure if the guards would have let her near him. He'd had to convince them that Ron was completely safe earlier today when they wouldn't even let the young knight enter his best friend's chambers to check up on him and to see what was going on.

Ron had told him that Hermione was being kept busy with chores around the castle, and that he had a sneaking suspicion that it was because one of the head matrons of the maids hadn't found it amusing that Hermione had chosen to help Harry sample possible foods for the ball. Harry had felt a stab of guilt in his abdomen at the thought of his best friend being forced to do extra work because of him, and at this point he was keeping a special lookout for her to that he could at least get the chance to apologize to her if that was indeed the case.

"Red and gold just gets too dull after using it for three years. I think we need to mix it up a little." Harry didn't even look up from his roll of parchment to see who'd said it.

"But what other colors can we use? Red and gold are the colors of the house of Potter, and the house of Potter is not only hosting the event, we have a Potter right here who defeated the Dark Lord on All Hallow's Eve. Or are you all forgetting the reason we even _have_ an All Hallow's Eve ball?"

Harry stopped paying attention to what was being said, and it sounded like the argument was really beginning to get heated when he finally saw a flash of familiar bushy brown hair from outside the hall.

Without really thinking about it, he said, "Er, I'll be right back. I think I'm in need of a little bit of a walk."

One of the guards that had been standing nearby made a move to follow him, but Sirius, who'd been sitting next to Harry, held up a hand and gestured for the dark tabby to follow Harry instead.

"Go on, Andrea, I trust you enough to keep Harry safe in our own halls," the knight said, sending pointed looks to the guards who'd meant to follow the prince. The tabby twitched its tail before trotting off after Harry, who was already halfway out the door and into the corridor.

Harry looked around, hoping to see where she'd gone. He felt a burst of disappointment when she was nowhere to be found, and was almost resigned to go back into the hall when the dark tabby passed him.

The cat thumped his leg with its tail, and it turned a pair of bright brown eyes on him and looked impatient, as if the creature were saying: _coming or not_? Without waiting to see if he was following, Harry watched as the tabby trotted off, its tail held high in the air. Without thinking, Harry went after it.

Harry and the cat rounded a corner, and suddenly Hermione was in sight. She was walking away from him, holding her wand out and levitating a heavy-looking basket, and Harry brightened considerably.

"'Mione!"

She turned, and Harry paused in his approach as he realized how… well, how _tired_ she looked. Her back was slightly hunched, and she stared at him with exhaustion evident in her chocolate brown eyes. But even at the sight of him, she offered a small smile.

"I can't stay too long to talk, Harry," she told him warningly as he came closer. "Romilda needs these blankets delivered to the washroom as soon as possible. If I dawdle, they'll probably give me even more work to do." Her voice turned slightly bitter towards the end of the statement, and as she said it, Harry could see that she was, actually, extremely dirty. Her hands were spotted with filth, and he raised his eyebrows.

"What have they had you _doing_?" he asked. "And why are they making you carry blankets if your hands are so dirty?"

Hermione looked down to see what he was talking about and grimaced. "They've had me working in the gardens all day, without magic. I would have come to see how the council meeting went, or the meeting with Dumbledore, but I keep getting slapped with last-minute jobs to do," she remarked, blowing an errant strand of hair away from her face. "I hope you don't think I've been avoiding you, it's just I-"

"'Mione, this wouldn't have to do with the fact that I asked you to sample foods with me yesterday, would it?"

This stopped her short. She blinked. "Er, why would you think a thing like that?"

Harry caught on to the hesitancy in her voice immediately. "_Would_ it?" he pressed.

"Oh, I… it's not your fault, Harry, it's just not my place-"

"'Mione, I'm sorry they-"

"Oh, Harry, come now, I just said it wasn't your fault-"

"But it _was_ my fault, considering I'm the one that invited you to-"

"And I should have had enough sense to refuse, but-"

"Oi, what're you two talking about?"

Harry and Hermione both turned to the opposite end of the corridor to see Ron standing there in some of his standard riding clothes, his red hair tousled as if the wind had been blowing through it. His blue eyes sparked in the dim hall, and his riding boots clicked against the stone floor as he approached them.

"Hermione's being punished with extra chores because she sampled food with me yesterday in the kitchens," Harry told him, at the same time that Hermione was trying to say,

"Harry's blaming himself for something that was entirely my fault."

Ron rolled his eyes as he got closer. "You two need to get over yourselves," he drawled. Eyeing Hermione, he remarked, "Did I hear something about you needing to take those blankets to the washroom? D'you want us to go with you?"

"I suppose," Hermione replied almost immediately. "I just don't want to be given any more jobs tonight. I'm in the need of a bath. And some supper."

"You haven't _eaten_?" Harry looked horrified at the prospect.

Hermione frowned at him. "I've been a little busy. I had a little bit of a snack earlier, but it's nothing to worry about, Harry. Really."

"C'mon," Ron said, patting Hermione on the shoulder and giving Harry a warning glance. He turned his head and looked at the dark tabby that had been sitting watchfully behind them. The cat was gazing at them with its brown eyes, and Ron asked it, "Is it alright if Harry comes with us to the washrooms?"

The cat mewed and stood, stretching, and padded over towards them.

The three of them started walking, side-by-side, just as they always had throughout the years. They hardly noticed the tabby tagging along behind them - it was keeping enough distance to give them a semblance of privacy, which Harry greatly appreciated. He noted that this was something the other guards that usually tailed him weren't willing to do. He would ask Sirius about it when he got back. He definitely liked this tabby compared to the others he'd been given - like that irritating finch that twittered constantly, or the terrier that practically tripped him every five minutes.

"So what have you been doing today, Ronald?" Hermione asked almost as soon as they set off, and the way Harry saw her glance at him suggested she was just trying to avoid the topic of her chores.

Harry listened as Ron launched into an animated description of his duties today. He'd been assigned to patrol duty, and had been sent out into the city to watch out for troublemakers, where apparently he stopped a thief from robbing an innocent little girl (though from Harry's perspective, it sounded a little embellished and from the way Hermione rolled her eyes, he could tell that she thought so too). And lastly, he'd been riding around the palace grounds with Seamus Finnigan, another young knight and a loose friend of theirs, before having returned his mount to the stables and grooming him.

The story lasted nearly all the way to the washrooms, and Harry was glad for the distraction today. This was the way things had always been between the three of them. Oftentimes pestering Hermione while she had work to be doing, and helping her out when she needed it. Whenever Harry and Ron weren't training with their swordsmanship, this was often where the pair of them could be spotted.

Over the years, many noblemen from around Gryffindor, and even around Hogwarts, came to visit the palace and to see young Harry. And more often than not, they were incredibly shocked (and in some cases, if the nobleman from Slytherin was a stiff pureblood, disgusted) that the prince spent so much time in the presence of a muggleborn servant girl.

Never, of course, had anyone's opinion of them ever stopped the three dear friends from spending time together.

"So how're things going with the ball?" Ron asked, half-teasing, half-curious. "Is everything going to go on as planned, even with all that's happened?"

Harry scowled, and upon seeing it, Ron grinned. "I'm supposed to help oversee the setup of the Great Hall tomorrow," Harry grumbled. "And the ball will still be on Saturday. Guests'll be getting here Thursday, Remus said."

"Oh, dear, that means that there's loads of cleaning to be done," Hermione said with a sigh.

"But you'll be able to use magic - it won't take that long," Ron scoffed.

Hermione sent him a withering look. "It's a _very_ large castle, Ron. This happens every single year, and every single year I have to tell you the same exact thing-"

And just like every other single year, Harry only smiled and listened to them bicker.

H&Hr&R&H&Hr&R

The guests, true to Remus' prediction, started arriving Thursday evening.

Harry and Ron were standing just outside the palaces' main doors, awaiting to greet the three carriages that had arrived in their midst. The first three families to arrive in what would surely be a long line of appearances throughout the night and the day following.

All of Hogwarts heard about the All Hallow's Eve Ball, and most wealthy and noble families throughout the land attended. This year, however, there would also be an influx of knights, to assist Kingsley in the hunt for the Death Eaters that would be departing the day after the festivities.

Harry stood with his godfather, Sirius, and Remus, dressed in his stuffy red and gold prince's garb with the crimson cloak that marked him as the heir to the House of Potter. A thinly laced silver crown sat atop his messy raven hair, and he uncomfortably pulled at the collar of his robes with a dragonhide-gloved hand. Sirius took note of his displeasure, and smirked.

"Now you see why your father absolutely couldn't stand wearing his royal dub," he muttered in Harry's ear, to which the prince smiled in good humor.

The first carriage rolled up in front of them, and the herald announced it to be King Xenophilius Lovegood of Ravenclaw, and his daughter and heir to the Ravenclaw throne, Princess Luna.

The pair of them emerged from the carriage, and Harry couldn't deny that he'd ever seen a stranger pair of nobles in his life. King Xenophilius and his daughter came to the All Hallow's Eve Ball every year, and every year they seemed to wear stranger things. The two royal families greeted each other cordially, as Ravenclaw and Gryffindor had always been on reasonably good terms, and Harry had never begrudged Princess Luna's company when she stayed at the Gryffindor palace, despite her oddities.

The second carriage contained a knight - Sir Cormac McLaggen, a knight who resided at one of the outer castles of Gryffindor. He'd come to go on the expedition with Kingsley, and Harry got the impression that he was a rather arrogant young man, and was glad to not have to deal with him.

The third carriage, however, contained Harry's least favorite people in all of Hogwarts.

The Slytherin royal family was currently based in the Malfoy bloodline. Rumor had it that they were major supporters of Lord Voldemort during his reign of terror, though they vehemently denied it after he was defeated here in this very palace. Harry had always disliked seeing King Lucius and his bitter wife, Queen Narcissa, who was one of Sirius' older cousins. But the person he truly couldn't stand was their arrogant and uppity son, Prince Draco, who treated Harry and his friends as though they were nothing more than a dirty speck of mud on his boot.

"Lucius," Remus greeted the Malfoy patriarch, albeit stiffly, dipping his head in acknowledgement. "We're glad you could make it."

"I wouldn't miss the famous All Hallow's Eve Ball for the world, and nor would my family." The way the King of Slytherin said it, it almost felt like a sneer. "We've been traveling quite a long way. I expect our accommodations have been prepared and are waiting for us?"

"Of course," Remus replied, and he gestured for a servant to come forward. Harry's stomach dropped when he saw that the servant was Hermione. "We'll have one of our staff take you to your rooms. A feast will be starting in a little over an hour for our guests should you feel hungry."

"Thank you for the invitation," the King of Slytherin answered firmly, before turning and smirking down at Hermione, who showed absolutely no signs of fear or annoyance at his expression.

"This way, your Highness," she said softly, before turning and leading the Slythering royal family into the castle.

Anxious, Harry looked over his shoulder to watch her lead them away, and his eyes met Ron's, who was standing just a little ways away. Ron's expression mirrored his own concern, and he dipped his head at the silent request Harry made. He muttered something into the ear of a brunette young woman standing next to him, and she flashed him a smirk before she disappeared from sight and the same dark tabby cat from a few days before trotted off in the direction that the Malfoys had gone with Hermione.

More guests arrived by the minute, and it was getting to the point where Harry was getting extremely bored with smiling and greeting the nobles that had come for the Ball. A few were knights, such as Sir Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff, that had responded to the call for knights from around Hogwarts for Kingsley's expedition (though Harry duly noted that none of the knights who'd arrived were from Slytherin.)

The tabby returned about twenty minutes later, and it quickly became the brunette Ron had asked earlier. She muttered something back into Ron's ear, and Harry took immediate notice of the exchange. Ron looked at Harry and nodded, as if to say, _She's alright._

Harry wasn't sure why he was so relieved, or why he'd even thought that the royals from Slytherin would have tried anything in the first place.

He was excused (thank the heavens) from greeting the guests a few minutes after the tabby had returned, and Ron immediately followed him as the pair of them disappeared into the castle, hopefully to find Hermione and ask about what had happened.

"What happened?" Harry asked immediately.

Ron wasted no time in explaining. "Andrea said they asked her a bunch of questions, questions they really shouldn't be asking, and she just kept brushing them off. She didn't exactly tell me what they kept going on about, she said she'd find me and tell me later."

"Sooner rather than later, Weasley."

The pair of them turned around to see that the brunette had followed them. She bowed to Harry, making him feel slightly uncomfortable, as she formally introduced herself.

"Andrea Brennan, Highness. One of General Black's officers in the Animagi squadron. You wanted to know about Granger?"

Harry looked to Ron, who nodded encouragingly.

The Animagus guard hardly waited for an answer before continuing. "I'll have to talk to King Remus and to General Black about the whole thing, of course. They didn't do anything to Granger, of course, but they were asking rather specific and curious questions about security."

"Security?"

"Wanting to know how many guards would be posted, and where, and all that. With everything going on, it could never hurt to be too cautious," Andrea replied, as though she were reciting this off from a report. "The Malfoys were strong supporters of the Dark Lord when he rose to power. There's a reason he was allowed so much lenience in the kingdom of Slytherin, you know. It's possible that they were just nervous, but it I don't want us to be caught with our guard down."

Ron and Harry exchanged a look. They too had had their personal run-ins with Prince Draco, and none of them had ever been pleasant. "And Hermione, what did she tell them?" Ron questioned.

"The brilliant little tart," Andrea chortled in an approving tone. "Lass didn't exactly tell them off, but told them she had no business telling some royals about security, not that she really knew much in the first place. Said if they needed any questions answered about that sort of thing, they'd have to bring it up with King Remus."

Harry grinned at the thought of Hermione telling off the Malfoys, though it did spur some worry. Prince Draco was the kind who was easily offended, and tended to take his revenge in particularly nasty ways. He sincerely hoped that King Lucius was not the same way. But then again, he was also aware that Hermione was capable of taking care of herself.

"You'd better go get ready for the feast, Harry," Ron warned him. "Come to think of it, I think I want to get on a fresh doublet beforehand. This one's beginning to feel stuffy."

Grinning, the two best friends made their way back to their respective chambers, both dreading and feeling somewhat anxious for the welcoming feast for the first of the guests.

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Please read and review! It's always appreciated. (And for anyone who's worried about Andrea being a major character, she's something like Damien. There for now.)

- Harp


	5. Four: Looking Under Rocks

So I hope that you all can forgive me, considering as I've completely botched my promises for when I would update the story. I've just started college, and so things are a little hectic, as you can imagine. To be honest, I also had absolutely no idea what I wanted to have happen during the ball, so that held me up for a week or two, so... but anyway, you're not here to listen to/read cruddy old explanations from me. Just as a reminder for the legal disclaimer, the concept of Harry Potter and all the characters do not belong to me, as we all know who they belong to. I really do hope you enjoy this chapter, so read on! As usual, please forgive any grammatical or spelling errors.

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**Chapter Four: Looking Under Rocks**

"_So you really hang around with _slaves_?"_

_Harry, Ron, and Hermione found their conversation interrupted as they all turned to see a snobbish boy with slicked back blond hair and peevish gray eyes sneering at them. The primary colors of his cloak and garments were green and silver, not at all like the primary red and gold of Harry's riding clothes. Immediately he got the sense that this wasn't someone from around the palace._

_As though he weren't waiting for a response other than their attention, the boy continued. "When Sir Marcus Flint came back telling us that the Potter prince did nothing but laze about with a knight and a servant girl, I thought he was joking. But now I can clearly see that he was right about you, _and_ the company you keep."_

_Harry frowned. He remembered Sir Marcus Flint, a nasty nobleman from Slytherin who'd come to negotiate a territory treaty with Remus just months before._

"_You're from Slytherin. Arrive with the royal family this morning, did you, sir?" Hermione questioned from Harry's side. The blond boy's eyes immediately zeroed in on her, and his sneer became a malevolent smirk._

"_Caught on, did you?" he snickered. "I _am_ the royal family, you stupid girl. You'd better address me as Your Highness, before I have you sent to prison for insubordination."_

"_Leave her alone," Ron snarled, and the young boy's eyes came to rest on the Gryffindor squire._

"_And you, a Weasley? My father says your house breeds like disgusting little rabbits. When's the next one of your sorry hides is going to come along?"_

_There would have been blood spilled on the floor of the Gryffindor palace that day if Hermione and Harry hadn't managed to hold their friend back from what would have surely been a rather nasty fight._

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The arrival of the Malfoys did absolutely nothing to add to the festive feel of the air. In fact, with Prince Draco constantly sneering at Harry and his friends, it most certainly took _away_ from their enjoyment of all the new and interesting people in the castle.

And there certainly wasn't a lack of them as the Hallow's Eve Ball drew nearer and nearer.

Famous knights and their kin, as well as nobles and royals from all kingdoms came to attend the ball. And many of the knights that had come to Gryffindor would be joining Kingsley in his search for the Death Eaters.

This group included men like the knight commonly known as Mad-Eye Moody (a "batty old codger", according to Ron), who was renowned as one of the most famous trackers in all of Gryffindor. It also included two of Ron's older brothers, as well as one of the very few female knights in the realm - a surprisingly clumsy young woman from the kingdom of Hufflepuff named Nymphadora Tonks, and the trio was surprised to learn that the rather cheerful woman actually had her family roots in the kingdom of Slytherin, and was related to the Malfoys.

As the ball drew closer and closer, Harry found that Hermione was becoming harder to find. She seemingly always had work to do, which was understandable, of course, but even after work ceased for the day, he could hardly ever find her. Not even in her homestead, where her worried parents confessed that their daughter wasn't coming home until exceedingly early in the morning.

Ron was unbothered by the lack of their friend's presence.

"All because official work for the day ends doesn't mean there isn't still stuff to be done," he reminded the prince when Harry had asked about it one morning. "They probably have Hermione working double. Plenty of the servants around here are."

Jeers from the Malfoy prince hardly made anything better.

But when the ball finally came, the palace of the Potter family became a beacon of colorful lights and grand music. While the guests in the palace gathered in their finest garments to attend the great ball, thousands of villagers throughout Gryffindor gathered in their town squares to dance and make merry in honor of the defeat of the Dark Lord.

Harry was standing in his quarters, waiting to go down to the ball, dateless for the evening. Although he was going "stag", as Sirius so fondly put it, it wasn't for a lack of offers.

Cho Chang, a rather pretty young noble maiden from Ravenclaw, had offered her hand to the young prince, as had a few young ladies from around Gryffindor, but Harry had uncomfortably denied every single one of them. Every time he even thought about accepting their invitations, he couldn't help but think of a certain frizzy-haired brunette servant girl… and lost the spirit.

He adjusted his sleeve as he looked himself in the mirror, not for the first time thinking of how absolutely ridiculous he looked. His robes were a deep crimson red, honorary of his house and kingdom, and a small golden crown was sitting uncomfortable atop his raven black hair. His dark shining boots (which had been polished earlier by the palace cobblers and their apprentices) clicked annoyingly against the stone of his floor, and a decorative sword and scabbard hung at his hip. In summary, he felt like a doll that had been dressed by an overactive designer.

The sound of his door opening caused the prince to turn around, and Harry found himself looking at an extremely flustered, and worn out Hermione.

"Harry!" she exclaimed with a squeak, and Harry was confused to note that she actually looked panicked to be in his presence. "They told me you'd already gone down to the ball."

"Well, I haven't," he replied, frowning. "Did you not want to see me?"

"Oh, it's never that, Harry, you know it's not," Hermione said in a rush. She was carrying blankets - probably his fresh linens - and she set them down on his bed and started to fuss with them, avoiding looking at him. When silence stretched for a moment more, Harry looking at her expectantly, she let out a sigh. "It's never been that I haven't wanted to see you, it's just… well, you see, there's just been a lot of pressure."

"On you?"

"Er, in a way," Hermione replied. She looked so uncomfortable that it was beginning to make even Harry feel a bit awkward. "Oh, Harry, you'd think it was so ridiculous."

"Why?"

Hermione looked at him desperately. "It's just that- now, don't laugh, but a lot of the elder servants don't want me around you anymore. They think we _fancy_ each other!"

"Why would they think that?"

"Oh, I don't know, it's so silly, the whole thing," Hermione replied. She looked relieved that he'd taken it the way he had, and suddenly she was much more relaxed than she had been just a moment ago. "I think it's just because there are all these women from the other kingdoms and that you being around me looks bad."

"'Mione, you know I've never cared about any of that. You're one of my best friends."

"I _know_, Harry, but me just saying that to my superiors doesn't do anything for anyone."

Harry frowned. He hated to think that the entire reason he hadn't seen much of her in the past few days was simply because someone thought it would look bad that his best friend happened to be a female serving girl. Let alone that he had offered to make her a free woman hundreds of times over in the past few years. "Who do I need to talk to about this?" he demanded.

"That won't do anything, Harry, it'll just make them angrier. Honestly, it's alright."

"I've hardly spoken to you these past few days," Harry told her. "I don't want it to be like this all the time."

She gave him a somewhat pleading look. "Harry, I'm sure it's just until the ball is over with and all of the noble women have gone. There's no need to make something out of this that it isn't."

Another thought occurred to the young prince. "You're not going to be at the ball?"

The question seemed to catch Hermione rather off guard. "I, er, of course not." She looked confused. "Why would I be? I'm a servant girl, Harry, and the only people who would be keeping an eye on things tonight are guards."

"I was just wondering."

There was another moment of silence, and Hermione's eyes roved over him as if inspecting his outfit. For the first time this evening, Harry actually felt a spark of nervousness as if he genuinely cared what Hermione thought he looked like. Her eyes went to rest at the crown atop his head, and she frowned contemplatively.

"It's a little crooked," she told him. When Harry reached up to fix it, she shook her head. "No, you're making it worse. Here."

Without warning, Hermione was suddenly very close to him, and Harry resisted the urge to gulp as she stretched up. Wondering why he was so genuinely affected by her closeness, he took the moment to observe what it was about her that had him unreasonably anxious.

Her face was pretty and heart-shaped, he noted, albeit a little smudged with dirt, her nose slightly wrinkled in concentration. Harry found himself staring at her warm chocolate brown eyes, softened as she appeared focused on reaching up herself to fix the golden crown on top of his head. His eyes were also drawn to her lips, and for the very first time in his life, Harry wondered what it would be like to just move in a little closer and cover those full pink lips with his own. Her fingers threaded gently through his hair as she attempted to move the crown around on his head, and after almost ten seconds, she seemed to have gotten it right before stepping away.

Blinking, Harry snapped out of his reverie and wondered that on earth had just been going through his mind. Startled by what had just transpired, he almost didn't hear Hermione murmur,

"Now you really do look like a king."

He opened his mouth to correct her that he wouldn't be king for another two years when the door unceremoniously opened and suddenly Ron was standing there, and he stopped when he saw Hermione before flashing her a grin and looking at Harry rather seriously.

"They're starting to get antsy, Harry," he said. "King Remus has been asking around to see if you've come down yet, and some of the guards are considering storming up here to make sure you haven't been kidnapped. We'd better get you out there. Alright there, Hermione?"

Their redheaded friend looked over towards the bushy-haired young woman, who just smiled at him. "I'm fine, Ron. I hope the pair of you have a fun time."

And that was the last time that Harry saw her that night.

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But, unfortunately, it was most definitely not the last time he thought about her that night.

After (and in a few cases, during) every dance, Harry found himself going back to that moment in his chambers, how it felt to have Hermione, a girl he knew so unbelievably well and had been around for eight years, to be that close. More often than not he chalked it up to the fact that they simply _had_ never been that close before, and it was only because of that reason alone that he was thinking about it so often.

And yet, on occasion, a brief thought would flash through his mind that maybe it was something more than that. Something more that was making him wish tonight, more than ever before, that it was Hermione that he could be dancing with.

"Alright, there, Harry?" It was about halfway through the ball itself, and suddenly Sirius had appeared at Harry's side as if he'd just Apparated. Or perhaps it simply seemed that way because Harry hadn't been paying attention. It was probably the latter. He clapped Harry on the shoulder, a drink of what looked like firewhiskey in his other hand.

"Shouldn't you be going a bit easy on the drinks tonight?" Harry asked skeptically, unable to keep a grin off his face as he looked at his godfather. "You're heading out with Kingsley tomorrow morning, aren't you?"

"Ah, a little bit of firewhiskey never killed anyone," Sirius replied flippantly, taking a drink from his glass. "Besides, this isn't nearly enough to make me regret it in the morning."

"And thank goodness for that." With that, King Remus was now on Harry's other side, looking reasonably amused and in high spirits. "Or else we all would have regretted it tonight."

"Like I'm sure you're regretting those four dances you've had with the lady knight Tonks from Hufflepuff," Sirius snickered, and Harry grinned to see Remus beginning to get flustered.

"That's hardly a matter I think is appropriate for discussion," Remus answered stiffly.

"Either way, Harry still hasn't answered my question. You alright, pup?" Sirius questioned, taking another swig of his firewhiskey.

Harry looked out at all the dancing couples, adjusting the collar of his dress robes. "I don't know," he answered honestly. This certainly wasn't the best he'd ever felt at a Hallow's Eve Ball, and all of these contemplations about Hermione and the developing situation with the Death Eaters were really beginning to throw his mind for a spin. "I just… I'm not sure how I should feel right now. And I've got a lot on my mind."

Remus and Sirius gave each other somewhat knowing looks behind Harry's back.

Sirius clapped his godson on the shoulder again. "Well, whoever the lady is, she sure as hell is one lucky wench," he said cheerfully, as if this was an every-day conversation.

Harry gave him a startled look.

"It's remarkable, really, that your father said about the same thing about twenty or so years ago about a remarkably stunning red-haired peasant girl. Bright green eyes, real fiery personality," Sirius told him reminiscently. "Was that before or after she slapped him and got arrested, eh, Moony?"

"My Mum got arrested?"

"For attempting to harm the prince," Remus supplied. "Your father, of course, got her out of that spot of trouble. It was definitely after, Sirius, you know that's how they met."

"Why'd she slap him?" Harry questioned.

Sirius smirked. "Right fierce little trollop she was," he said with a certain level of fondness in his voice. "We were walking through the village, actually, just exploring a bit. We had some guards undercover following us - things were a tad tense in the kingdom at the time... well, sure enough, your mother was working at a flower stall near a tavern we were particularly fond of, and as you can imagine, your father thought it would be a right time to try an flirt her up a bit. Ended up saying something that wasn't too innocent and she slapped him right across the face. It was only after she was arrested that she realized she'd just slapped the prince of Gryffindor."

Harry was grinning by the end of the story.

"They became the fairy tale couple. Gave girls all around Hogwarts confidence, thinking that even peasant girls could marry a prince," Sirius continued. "They got married about a year after they met, and well, then they had you."

"James' parents weren't too happy with him, though," Remus added. "Remember how they wanted him to marry that maiden from Hufflepuff?"

"Oh, yeah, I'd forgotten about Amelia Bones," Sirius remarked, scratching his chin. "Wonder what happened to her."

Harry, not entirely sure of how much more he wanted to hear about all this, quietly excused himself and went to escape from what was quickly becoming a reminiscing session between his two godfathers.

Not less than ten minutes later, the night only took a turn for the worse.

Harry was drinking a glass of wine, having just had a rather odd conversation with Princess Luna Lovegood, and the princess was walking away from him when he heard a rather sneering voice in his ear.

"So where's your grimy sidekick Weasley and your little Mudblood tart?"

Gritting his teeth, Harry turned to find himself face to face with Prince Draco, who was observing him with a smirk. The Slytherin prince's hair was slicked back, as it normally was, and his gray eyes held hints of rather vicious malice.

Ron was out on the dance floor, dancing with some noblewoman from Ravenclaw, it looked like, and of course Harry knew Hermione was nowhere near the ball tonight. Not finding it worth the anger to answer the prince of Slytherin, Harry turned away in the hopes that Malfoy would just give up and leave. But, naturally, it didn't exactly go his way.

"She's a pretty little thing, your slave. The years since I've seen her last have treated her well, it looks like," Draco continued to drawl, stepping up to be right next to Harry, who was now gripping his wine glass with a vice-like grip. "Though I'm sure you've been experiencing that firsthand."

"Malfoy, I really don't think you should be sticking that nose where it doesn't belong," Harry growled. "You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, and quite frankly, neither do I." He took an angry drink from his wineglass.

"Oh, no matter, no matter. My next question was only going to be if she really was the minx under the sheets that she looks like she could be."

Harry almost choked on his wine. To hear Hermione being spoken of so crudely was almost enough to make Harry simply turn and punch the other prince, but for the fact he was in a ballroom surrounded by hundreds of nobles that would most certainly not be impressed with such behavior. Draco seemed to know this, and obviously reveled in that fact as he continued to taunt Harry in his ear.

"You know, I was extremely tempted to try her out the evening we arrived, but I was cut short by the fact that your so-called king invited us to a feast. A Memory Charm of course, afterwards, considering as it's bad image for a prince such as myself to be seducing servant girls from other kingdoms, attractive as though they may be…"

"Shut your mouth about Hermione if you know what's good for you," Harry snarled.

"Oh, hitting a nerve, am I, Potter?"

"Don't talk about her like that."

"What, the little Mudblood servant? She's far beneath our stature, Potter, I'd think you at least thought somewhat highly of yourself."

"I said to shut your mouth," Harry growled.

Draco was clearly enjoying this. "Or what will happen, Potter?"

"Or I'll throw your arse out for talking about a servant girl with language that is expressly frowned upon at Gryffindor Palace." The previous song had ended, and Ron was suddenly in their midst, apparently having seen the two conversing from his spot on the dance floor. The young knight's arms were crossed tightly across his chest, and his sword gleamed dangerously from the scabbard at his side. His hand rested on the hilt, as if he had no qualms with pulling out the weapon itself in a hall crowded with people.

The prince of Slytherin also seemed to recognize this, and he sneered. "We were just talking about you, Weasley. Tell me, is your younger sister here tonight? I haven't had my fill of lowly whores this evening."

Ron let out a noise that was close to that of a feral growl, and Harry could easily see that his best friend was quivering with the effort to not completely obliterate Malfoy. His hand instead moved from his sword to his wand, and he slowly slid it hallway out of its sheath. "Did you want to repeat that, Malfoy? I'm afraid I didn't quite hear you. And if you say it a little louder, I'm sure that King Remus would gladly have you and your family banished from this hall."

Malfoy gave the pair one last glowering glare before stalking off, probably to go find mischief elsewhere. Harry shot Ron both a grateful and a knowing look.

"Thanks for that, mate," Harry said.

Ron shrugged, sliding his wand back into its sheath. It was clear that he was still shaking with anger, and it took a moment for him to calm down enough to actually answer his friend somewhat sanely. "I heard him badmouthing 'Mione. You looked about ready to murder him. You know," he said, now looking thoughtful, "when you become king, I honestly don't think I'd mind if you waged war against Slytherin just so one of us would get the chance to hack his head off in battle."

The pair of them grinned wistfully at the idea, and after that, the ball wasn't all that abysmal for Harry and his young knight friend. He just couldn't help but shake the feeling that night would have felt much more complete if a certain servant girl had been here, having fun right alongside them.

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Aw, so I hoped you all enjoyed the next installment. Sorry if the ball wasn't all that you hoped it would be - none of the major plot drama will start for at least a chapter or two, though as you can see the romantic side has started a bit. Let me know how you liked it. Reviews are always appreciated! Again, I hope I did Draco alright, but I'm sorry if I made him a little too nasty. And I also hope that the Harry/Hermione moment earlier didn't seem rushed or badly written. But I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can! Thank you all so much for sticking with me so far.

- Harp


	6. Five: To the Edge of the Earth

Well, I managed to get the next chapter up in a decent amount of time! Hoping this update finds all of this story's followers and reviewers well - I'm personally doing alright (in case anyone was wondering.) This next chapter is a bit longer than the others, but I just finished it earlier today and so if there are any grammatical, spelling, or continuity errors here, please forgive me, and it's alright to let me know in a review. Anyway, read on, and enjoy!

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**Chapter Five: To the Edge of the Earth**

"_Oh, this is all so ridiculous, Harry, I really don't see why you want me to do this."_

_Harry and Ron gave each other amused looks. "She's not going to bite you, Hermione, and the worst thing that could happen is that you'd fall off. Ron and I are going to be here the entire time to make sure nothing happens."_

_Hermione was glaring at them disbelievingly, her gaze flickering between them and the mare that they'd brought out from the stables for her to ride. The pair were grinning at her, and she could tell by the mischievous looks on their faces that they weren't about to let her out of this._

_With a huff, she relented. Continuing to grin, Ron helped hoist her up onto the mare's saddle, while Harry held the reins to keep the mare steady._

"_I don't like this," she said immediately when the mare tossed her head._

"_Oh, come on, Hermione, you haven't even started moving yet," Ron said in merriment._

_Well, much to the boys' delight, Hermione didn't like it any better when Harry actually began to lead the mare around the paddock, and she wanted to get off more with every passing second, but she didn't dare try to get down from the saddle until the two boys helped her off. At which point she'd glared haughtily at them both before storming off shouting something about having chores to do. Neither Harry nor Ron ever forced her to get on a horse again._

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Harry rose early the next morning, woken by a courier owl who'd brought him a message from Remus telling him where the knights were gathering to make their departure for the hunt for Death Eaters. The prince had rolled out of bed, stuffed himself into some decent clothing before exiting his room to find that a raccoon from Sirius' Animagus Squadron was waiting for him to escort him downstairs.

The prince and his furry entourage made their way towards the northern stables, where there was a flurry of activity.

Squires were going every which way, grabbing supplies and riding gear for knights as mounts were groomed and mounted, and armor was being secured.

Remus, Ron, and Sirius were waiting for him at the stable doors. It unnerved Harry to see his godfather standing in the full armor of an Animagi officer, and his stomach clenched to realize that he might not be seeing Sirius for a fairly long time.

Sirius seemed to sense his unease, and gave Harry a brief, tight hug and thumped him on the back. "It'll be fine, Harry," he said confidently, with a grin. "Don't you go all getting worried about me. There are almost thirty of us setting out, and we're all capable of taking care of ourselves and each other. I'm taking some of the best Animagi soldiers I have in my squadron. If there's any Death Eaters out there, we'll be sure to catch them and give them what's coming to them."

"No knights from Slytherin, though, the slimy bastards," Ron remarked.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they sent out couriers to warn any Death Eaters that might be out there," Sirius agreed darkly.

"What worries me is the report Officer Brennan gave to us," Remus said. The king was scratching his chin in thought, as he looked ahead with a contemplative expression on his face. "I don't like this idea of anyone investigating our security measures, and King Lucius seemed all too interested in them during his visit."

"She told you what King Lucius was doing when he first got here, didn't she?" Harry supplied. "He was asking Hermione, of all people."

Remus nodded. "Probably thinking he could get it out of a loose-tongued servant girl. It was a stroke of luck he happened to be asking one as sharp-witted as our Hermione. You reminded me, Harry, we'll have to think of a reward for her, clever little thing that she is."

Harry already had something in mind, and made note to tell his second godfather later.

Moments later, Sir Kingsley Shacklebolt approached them, and he gave a deep bow to Harry and Remus each before straightening and saying, "Sir, we're almost ready for your sendoff. Sirius, you might want to get to your position at the front of your corps - your officers are looking for you."

Sirius nodded, and turned back to the rest of them. He shook hands with Ron, thumped Remus on the shoulder, and gave Harry one last hug.

"I'll see you when I get back, pup. I don't want to hear too much about all the mischief you've caused while I was gone." After a brief pause, he amended, "Well, I do, but make sure that it doesn't surpass anything your father and I did. We like holding our records, you know." He winked, and just like that, he was gone amongst the flurry of knights mounting onto their horses.

A few minutes later, Remus was escorted to the head of the company by Sir Shacklebolt, where Ron and Harry stood off to the side to watch the exchange that was about to take place.

It felt as though the entire palace grounds fell silent the second that King Remus of Gryffindor raised his hand to gather attention.

"To all of the knights who have chosen to make this journey, we welcome and thank you," he said loudly, in a booming voice that Harry was sure he would never be able to replicate. "It's been a long while since we've seen such a combined effort from the four kingdoms" (at this, Ron snorted and muttered something to Harry about Slytherin being absent, and from the looks on some of the knights' faces, it was easy to see that Ron wasn't the only one who shared this opinion) "and it gives me a great deal of hope if a threat does indeed face us. We will stand together in the face of this new enemy, if there is indeed one to face.

"As you have gathered, your purpose on this mission is to seek out Death Eater activity in the Forbidden Mountains, where we have reason to suspect that their cause has been taken up again. Muggleborns have begun disappearing from our outermost villages, and so we call upon you to find out the precise reason for these disappearances. Because we all remember how troublesome the Death Eaters proved to be last time for all four kingdoms, and if now is the time to face them again, as we feared we might have to, then we must be swift and wise in our actions.

"The blessings of all four monarchs go with you, and all of Hogwarts honors your courage. We hope to see you all safely returned. So, my brave knights, you set out to protect your families. For your people, and your homes!"

And with this, the King of Gryffindor stepped away from the knights gathered, and with a loud shouted order of, "Move _out_!" from Kingsley, the company moved out of the stables and galloped towards the great gates that protected the palace grounds. Harry spotted a motley crew of animals amongst the mounted horsemen, one of which was a recognizable great black dog, and the prince grinned as the dog howled and barked as he moved with the rest of the company. Within but a few moments, they were out of sight, and their mission had begun.

Remus clapped the two boys on the shoulder, and he told Harry that he would expect his godson for a meeting with the council after lunch in the throne room before heading back up to the main part of the castle. With one look at each other, the two boys went off to find some food to eat before Harry had to go to the meeting.

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"How was the council?"

Ron and Harry were walking side by side down one of the garden paths, seeking out Hermione, whom they'd been told had been ordered to trim the rose plants that were at the southern tip of the gardens. After having sat through a two-hour council meeting that had been just as boring as it had been pointless, Harry was rather glad to see his red-haired friend and to be seeking out the third member of their trio.

As they walked, Harry talked about how the council had been somewhat empty, considering as half of the council members themselves were knights that had left this morning. He talked about how Remus had essentially been telling everyone to be on their guard, because they had absolutely no idea what the company was going to find, and how until their return their number one priority was keeping Harry safe and making sure that he stayed out of trouble. And added on how he himself didn't even understand how that had taken two hours of his day.

But this also explained the crow that was flying above them in circles - all because Sirius had gone didn't mean that his Animagus squadron had been ordered to stop tailing the young prince.

They found Hermione, as they'd suspected, trimming the roses. Her face was flush from the heat of the early afternoon, and her hair was as bushy as ever in the humidity. She was grumbling quietly to herself, and Harry smirked as he heard something about one of the head servant matrons, Romilda, and where she should stick the freshly trimmed roses.

"Hullo, there, Hermione," Ron greeted her cheerfully.

Hermione looked up in surprise and grinned at the sight of them. "Oh, thank the _Lord_," she said gratefully, standing up and giving them both a brief hug. "I've been waiting for a distraction for hours. How was the send-off? Did you get to see who all was there?"

"Most of them were knights from Gryffindor," Harry told her, and for some reason he felt a prick of that same anxiousness from last night when her eyes immediately became trained on him. "But there were a few from Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw."

"None from Slytherin, though," Ron pointed out. "Sirius reckons they probably sent out warnings to any Death Eaters that might be lurking around. Wouldn't surprise me if they did."

"Oh, Ron, that's an awful thing to say," Hermione chided him. "You can't just assume things like that. Perhaps they have things to deal with in their kingdom. They're getting ready for a wedding, I heard - Prince Draco Malfoy wouldn't stop boasting about his wife-to-be whenever I was around. Liked to mention how she was pureblooded and a noblewoman and all that. As if I could actually care less." Hermione snorted as Harry and Ron grinned at her.

"I can't imagine anyone wanting to marry that git," Ron declared. "D'you reckon the reason Queen Narcissa's nose is always turned up is because she can't stand the smell of her own son?"

Harry snickered, and even Hermione admitted an amused smile.

"Well, in any case, I hope the company will be alright," Hermione then said, worry in her voice. "If they run into more Dark magic…"

"I'm sure they'll be alright, 'Mione," Harry reassured her, giving her a smile. In truth, he was worried too, for Sirius and for the rest of the knights that had gone, but he didn't want her to see that. "There were plenty of them that went, and every single one of them is great at magic. Speaking of which, why don't you just trim the roses with magic? It'd be a lot faster."

"There's a Magical Detection Charm on the gardens and the grounds where servants usually do the work," Hermione explained. "We're not allowed to use magic out here - usually it's a punishment for those of us who have magic. For the ones that don't, this is normally where they work."

"Blimey, Hermione, what're you being punished for now?"

"Nothing, really," came the answer with an air of forced cheeriness. "Romilda is just devising all the possible ways she can to keep me busy. I thought that perhaps she'd be a little less horrid after the ball had passed, but apparently I was wrong. Or perhaps she's just waiting for things to die down a little. Either way, this is an absolute pain."

"Do you want us to help you?" Harry asked, concerned.

Hermione waved at him with almost a dismissive hand. "No, that'll only make it worse should someone see you, I'm sure. You don't have to-"

"Hermione Granger?"

Harry and Ron turned to see one of the palace guards standing behind them. Upon seeing the prince, the guard started a little and bowed, and Harry frowned in discontent.

"Er, pardon, your Highness, but His Majesty King Remus has requested an audience with the servant Hermione Granger, sir," the guard said, and immediately Harry realized what this was. A grin came over his face as he glanced back at Hermione, who looked both shocked and reasonably frightened.

"His Majesty?" Hermione questioned. It was the closest to stuttering that Harry had ever heard her. When her eyes zeroed in on his grin, immediately she scowled. "Harry, why are you smiling?"

"Nothing. You don't have anything to worry about Hermione," Harry told her. When Hermione gave him a mutinous glare, Harry glanced back at the guard, dipping his head. "We'll walk her to the king. Is he in the throne room?"

The guard nodded nervously.

"Thanks," Harry said. Looking back at Hermione, smiling, he said, "Leave your stuff. Don't worry about Romilda, we'll take care of her. C'mon."

Hermione, continuing to glare at him, merely stalked past him and started heading in the direction of the castle. Frowning slightly, Ron leaned in and muttered,

"What does Remus want to see Hermione for?"

Just continuing to smile, Harry replied, "You'll see."

The three friends ventured back up to the castle together, Hermione all the while fidgeting nervously, Ron frowning contemplatively, and Harry smirking as if there was a private joke that simply nobody else would ever understand.

Thirty minutes later, after Harry and Ron had been waiting outside the throne room for about fifteen, Hermione came bouncing out, positively the happiest the pair had ever seen her. Ron looked absolutely startled when Hermione unexpectedly threw her arms around his neck in a huge hug. Harry grinned as she gave him the same treatment, though his heart thudded against his ribs as she kissed him on the cheek, and when she pulled away, beaming, there was still a warm spot on his face where her lips had just been. He resisted the urge to feel the skin there, choosing instead to smile proudly down at Hermione as she gushed,

"Oh, Harry, I can't believe it! However did you manage to pull it off?"

"I didn't manage to do anything, 'Mione," Harry told her. "You've more than earned it."

"Would someone mind telling me what the bloody hell is going on?" Ron grumbled.

Hermione whirled around to face him. "Oh, Ron, it's just the best thing that's ever happened!" she replied, almost breathlessly. "King Remus is giving me a servant's position in the library! I get to work in the _library_, Ronald! And Harry's the one that recommended me!"

"Blimey, you'll be in there day in and day out," Ron remarked, though he was smiling and it was clear he was happy for her. "They'll have to pull you out by the hair to make you go home at night now. Harry and I will never get to see you - you won't want to raise your nose up from a book long enough to greet either of us."

With a laugh and a slap to his arm, Hermione led the two boys off, and they spent the remainder of the afternoon telling a scandalized Romilda Vane that Hermione was no longer under her authority and telling her parents of the joyous news. And the whole time, Harry couldn't help but grin at seeing Hermione to happy, and he knew that he'd made the right choice in telling his godfather about his dear friend's love for all things written. It made him feel a warmth he hadn't felt since… well, it was a warmth he had never felt before. And he didn't realize it was there until long after the sun had fallen, and Hermione had bid him and Ron goodnight.

H&Hr&R&H&Hr&R

"We might as well go back," grumbled Andrea Brennan from Sirius' side. "It's been almost two weeks and we haven't seen anything but game and too many trees."

Though Sirius gave his youngest officer a stern look, he couldn't help but agree with her inwardly. It had been almost two weeks since they had set out from Gryffindor Palace, and it had taken them three days as an entire company to reach the edge of the Forbidden Mountains. They'd pressed on in the hopes of finding Death Eater activity, but now they'd traversed so far into the mountains that even Sirius feared that they wouldn't know their way back out.

Every day had been the same. They awoke sometime around dawn, ate breakfast, stamped out the campfires, packed up the tents, and moved out. Lunch was a meal eaten on horseback (or in Sirius' squadron's case, on foot), and they wouldn't settle until after the sun had set to eat dinner and rest.

At this point, it almost felt as if they were aimlessly wandering through the mountains, and Sirius began to wonder if it had been a good idea after all to bring so many knights with them.

The forest around them was quiet, but not unnaturally so. The clopping of horses' hooves, the skitter of wildlife in the underbrush and the trees, the sounds of insects buzzing through the air, the crunch of branches underfoot… it seemed as if there was nothing out of order out here in the wilderness beyond their kingdom.

But Sirius continued to stay on alert. Because that was precisely the reason why this might be the perfect place to hide for Death Eaters.

But it wasn't hard to see that there were several in the company who felt the same way as Andrea. There were many grim and even bored faces among them, though a majority of those who were bored or impatient were younger. Those who were survivors from the previous war looked grim and just as alert was Sirius was himself.

"Sirius?"

The man looked up to see his younger cousin, the lady knight from Hufflepuff Nymphadora Tonks, riding over to him on her steed. There was an uneasy expression on her face as she reined in her horse to walk alongside Sirius.

"Something wrong, Dora?" Sirius asked her, using the childhood name he knew she preferred.

Tonks looked around as if she was being watched or listened to, and murmured, "Something doesn't feel right. For the past few days now, I've felt like we're being watched. And I'm not the only one who feels that way." She added that last bit quickly when Sirius opened his mouth to reassure her that all was well. "Sir Cedric Diggory thinks so too. And so does Mad-Eye."

"Mad-Eye Moody _always_ feels like he's being watched," Sirius reminded her.

"But he's a right brilliant knight at the end of the day," Tonks refuted, her eyes glinting in defiance. Alastor Moody had been her mentor, in the days when she'd trained in Gryffindor to become a lady knight, and she had come to respect him in the highest manner during her time there. "I just think Kingsley should be keeping a better eye out. Have your scouts reported anything? Anything at all?"

Sirius shook his head. "Our birds aren't seeing anything or anyone else, not even smokes from fires. And anyone with a nose doesn't smell anyone but our company. My scouts will be back from their patrol in a few minutes, and then we'll see," he told her.

Tonks huffed, clearly having hoped for a different answer. "Well, I still don't-"

Her voice was cut off by the scream of a horse up ahead and shouting. Cracks suddenly resounded in the silence, and there was no mistaking that a majority of the yells now echoing through the forest were men and women shouting spells. Magic.

_Death Eaters._

Praying that wasn't true, that this was just some bandit group they'd encountered, Sirius and Tonks exchanged one look at each other before Tonks went charging ahead on her steed and Sirius shifted into his dog form and chased after her.

The pair of them rounded a corner to find that the front of their company was being bombarded with combative spells, and immediately Sirius could tell that they were outnumbered. _How is that even possible?_ he asked himself desperately, feeling his heart drop. What was worse was their attackers bore the masks that had inflicted such terror in their lands all those years ago - Death Eaters.

Without a word, Tonks threw herself into the fight, charging in. Sirius followed shortly after her, shifting back into his human form and whipping out his wand to repel a curse that had been shot his way. Around him, he could hear men falling from their horses, the creatures themselves whinnying in terror. Sirius cast shield charm after shield charm, occasionally getting in a few offensive Stunning jinxes.

"They're going after Gryffindor knights, Sirius!" Tonks came running to his side, seemingly having lost her horse in the fight. She Stunned a Death Eater a few yards from them, only to have to repel a returning jinx a split second later.

"Why?" Sirius grunted, casting a Disarming Jinx at one of their opponents.

"Practically none of them are going after me or any of the other knights from the other kingdoms," Tonks replied breathlessly as she repelled a Slicing Charm. "It hardly makes much of a difference who we go to help, there's too many of them. It's an ambush - they were _waiting_ for us!" She spat and ducked to avoid a Killing Curse sent their way.

"But why go after knights from Gryffindor?" Sirius asked, more to himself than anyone else as he spun around to deflect a Stunner.

"I don't know," Tonks answered. "Listen, you'd better get out here."

"What?" Sirius pushed them both down to avoid a Cruciatus Curse before yanking Tonks back to her feet.

"I know, it sounds insane, but you've got to listen to me. Take some of your Animagi with you; get back to your palace. Warn the king. I'll bet you anything that's what this is for."

Sirius considered it for a brief moment as he and Tonks began fighting back to back. The sheer numbers of Death Eaters that they were facing astounded him - he hadn't even been aware that there had been this many left alive at the end of the last war. But as he looked at the very young face of one of their attackers, he realized with a sick feeling in his stomach that many of the people here were new recruits. People who had joined recently.

"I'm not leaving you behind," he grumbled.

"You don't have a choice. I don't exactly have a four-legged form," Tonks replied.

Sirius sent a Stunner at one of the younger recruits, and smirked in satisfaction as the man dropped, Stunned. "Dora, I'm not about to-"

"Sirius, Tonks is right!" Sir Kingsley Shacklebolt approached them on his destrier, his eyes alight as he released a powerful Pushback Jinx on a number of their foes. "Take some of your officers and get them out of here. We'll hold this lot off as long as we can. Get back to the palace and tell Remus what's happened. I'll bet you anything that's where they're headed. That's an order! Tonks, take my horse, go with him."

Sirius gritted his teeth at the same time Tonks verbally protested, glaring up at the more experienced knight. If anything, he hated being ordered to do something, let alone being told to run from a fight. But an order from the leader of their company, and an order to get back to warn his godson of the danger… it wasn't as though he could refuse. Clenching his fist, he nodded at Kingsley, before grinning and saying,

"Give them hell for me."

With that, he ducked out of their particular fight, his eyes searching for any of his squadron he could recognize.

"Brennan!" he barked, seeing the young woman bravely fending off two Death Eaters at once. Immediately he sent a Stunner in their direction, and after one fell, the young Animagus quickly Disarmed the other and shoved him away from her. She whirled around to face him, confused. "We're getting out here! We need to warn the king!"

Nodding, she dashed over to him, and together they managed to gather a few of the other knights before charging back into the forest that they'd come - some on warhorses and the others in their four-legged forms.

A few of the Death Eaters made to go after them, but one of the senior officers of their corps stopped them. "Let them go," she cackled, her gaunt face alight with a deadly excitement. "They're doing exactly what we want them to. Soon all of Hogwarts shall know that we are ready to strike, and ready to return our master to his former glory."

Grinning somewhat madly, the newer recruits simply looked at each other joyfully before returning back to the fray, which had now become more of a slaughter than an actual battle. That same senior officer, who went by the name of Bellatrix Lestrange, eyed the chaos with a bloodlust akin to that of a lethal predator's. As she slashed her wand and killed one of the bolder Gryffindor knights that came rushing at her, she realized just how much she had missed all this. Serving her Dark Lord in the only way she truly knew how - to kill and torture all who opposed her.

The old war had ended abruptly and messily, with the sudden destruction of their master's body at the hands of what had then been a toddler. Many of their comrades had been captured or killed, but Bellatrix had been one of the few who had escaped and had taken to hiding in the mountains, where they had remained until their master's spirit came to them, telling them of his location and of his new mission to restore himself to his lost form.

For many years now, they had been recruiting, sneaking through the kingdoms and finding those who shared their mission - to destroy the nonmagical blood in Hogwarts and create a new supreme order where purebloods would reign, halfbloods would serve as their slaves, and any born of Muggles and all the Muggles themselves completely exterminated. It was a glorious purpose, and Bellatrix had devoted her entire life, no, her entire soul to the cause.

And, soon enough, their master would return. First, they had to kill Prince Harry Potter, and Bellatrix Lestrange had absolutely no qualms about also murdering anyone who dared stand in their way.

* * *

Did you all enjoy it? I hope so. The overall plot's starting to really get moving now - I don't have the entire story planned out yet, but I know the general direction I want it to head in. A majority of this FanFic is just getting written and plotted out as a I go along. And for those of you Harmony shippers who began reading Prince of Light just for the coupling, well, there are some good moments coming up for you. Little hints of them here in this chapter too. Well, let me know what you thought! Even a simple few-worded review makes my day, it really does. But, you don't have to, of course. Thank you all very much and I hope to have the next chapter up in a reasonable amount of time.

- Harp


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